The House Next Door

Oh, Ellen. The House Next Door
September 30, 2025 by HarperCollins

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Rory Parker  lives next door to a house that has been vacant for several years, a rarity in a desirable Bethesda, Maryland neighborhood. It's known as the Cleverly House, after the owner, Hazel, who died several years ago at the age of 79. Years ago, her younger brother, Timothy, had fallen down the stairs and died, feeding into the opinion that the house was haunted. Rory doesn't argue with that; when he was five, a little boy named Joey Starling moved to the house from Boston. A chandelier crashed to the ground shortly after they moved in, and Joey  also fell down the stairs. He threw such a fit about going home after being in the hospital that he stayed with Rory's family, and shortly thereafter went to live with his grandparents, and the Starlings sold the house. Even Rory's grandfather, Ojiichan, felt something odd about the place when he visited from Japan, and told Rory to keep holy water and salt on hand. An iron fence was put up between the properties, and Ojiichan made sure that Rory had a cat to protect him from the yokai, evil spirits, in the house. Now, a  new family has moved in. Jack Yoon is Rory's age, but Mira is much younger. They immediately feel something is wrong, and when the electricity goes out, Rory comes over with salt molds to make morishio is the children's bedrooms. There's disgusting gray goo that shows up all over the house that Mira says is created by the creatures popping and melting when they are killed. After Jack's dad is burned at his mother has to take him to the ER, the kids know they have to put an end to this. They've been talking to Timothy and Hazel, who are tethered to the house. They indicate that the creatures arrived after their father put a hole in the basement while building a bomb shelter, and after that the creatures, who crave young children's blood and bones, were a problem. Hazel, who has been watching television shows with Jack's Halmeoni, wants to help. Will Rory and Jack, with some help from Mira, be able to fight off the creatures so that the Yoons can live in their house in peace? 

Strengths: Oh, who also wrote the creepy Spirit Hunters series, puts a spin on the moving-into-a-haunted house middle grade trope by having the house next door be haunted. This gives us a little more depth to the mystery, and Rory's friendship with Joey gives him more motivation to fight. The creatures are a bit gross, which is always a plus, and the gray goo is nicely depicted on the great cover (the artist was not mentioned in the E ARC). The parents are all around and supportive, but stay in the background, no doubt busy with their jobs as IT support, physics professor, and librarian. No idea why those details tickled me so much, especially Jack getting a library card from Rory's mom! Getting advice from Ojiichan was helpful, although I would have loved to see more of him. There was also a LOT of description of yummy Japanese and Korean food, which will definitely appeal to hungry middle grade readers. 
Weaknesses: This is a great scary book for more sensitive readers, but my students love books by K.R. Alexander, Chris Krovatin, or Jeff Strand that have more blood and gore, jump scares, and ghost who want to kill the children. I don't make the rules; I have the conversations with macabre eleven year olds. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who want creepy ghost tales like Parris' Field of Screams or Uhrig's The Polter-Ghost Problem.